It took me only 88 years and $3,000 to get from Philadelphia to San Diego.
Long ago I wanted to visit the seaport in Southern California, after
watching movies of World War II sailors and soldiers moving in and out of
the harbor, kissing wives and girlfriends on the dock.

Years later I sat glued to a TV set whenever Joan Embery of the San Diego
zoo dropped into the Tonight show to let Johnny Carson wrestle a python or
laugh at an orangutan. What finally got me here was the graduation of Louis
Topper from the University of California, San Diego. A grandson of my
fiancée Connie, he had spent five years in Earl Warren College earning
honors in mechanical engineering.

Connie, her daughter Wendie and I sat in a Sunday morning sun, behind nearly
a thousand mortarboards. We listened to a phalanx of faculty administrators
and professors, as they egged the class on to further achievements in the
real world. We could feel the pride oozing from families and friends as
their graduates walked across the stage. They paraded later to the huge
recreation field, where hundreds of cameras captured handshakes and hugs.

Nearly a thousand graduates await the
magic moment at
Earl Warren College of the University

Louis Topper celebrates with mother
Wendie and father Frank

The ceremony was one of six conducted over a weekend by colleges that
comprise the huge university, whose campus adjoins the attractive village of
LaJolla. Louis, who had worked part-time as a guide around the 50-year-old
school, showed us manicured gardens and the ecological reserve that
overlooks the Pacific coast, where he occasionally rides his surfboard. He
took us to the cove where sunbathing seals had evicted surfers.

Seals basking in the sun are popular
with tourists

Museum of Art is one of nine museums
in the
Balboa Park cultural complex

We gave Louis an afternoon off to visit friends he might not see again until
a class reunion. His mother drove us to Balboa Park, where Connie and I were
overwhelmed by the complex of nine museums. We focused on the art museum:
Wendie lingered over Italian Renaissance, Connie wandered into Islamic art
and I sought the comfort of Impressionism. Nobody went for Modern.

Alas, no time for the zoo. We missed other opportunities for sightseeing by
spending time at the pool below our suite in the upscale Estancia Resort
Hotel, which was within a short walk to the campus. A barbecue with families
of Louis’s friends, long lunches and dinners in Little Italy also cut into
planned excursions.

We had a built-in “safety,” a two-hour summary of other offerings in the
city. Old Town Trolley Tours has 17 sightseeing buses in San Diego, with
driver/guides whose routines are loaded with anecdotes, facts, humor and
only an occasional bromide. Our tour was expanded by hopping off at critical
points and back onto a later bus making the same tour. A $34 ticket bought a
lot of visual adventure.
Among things I remember best: huge convention center, Padres baseball
stadium, harbors full of sailboats and motor launches, banana boats, several
aircraft carriers, World War II B-24 aircraft factory, U.S. Marines center.

Connie’s most dramatic recollection was the 2 ½ -mile-long bridge that arcs
across the bay to residential Coronado island. The high bridge looked scary,
but passengers enjoyed the ride as they calmly looked back to the mainland
and downtown skyscrapers. On the island we ogled the white beach that
stretches nine miles down to Mexico.

Beyond our wish to be with Louis and his family on his memorable day, we
found San Diego and its environs to be a vibrant and colorful blend of
commerce, culture and unmatched topography.